Free Republic

Great point. I was thinking of Woody Hayes also. I think Knight was at Ohio State about the same time as Hayes. Of course, Hayes had to quit after an incident in a game in which he slugged an opposing player.

Sorry, I can't resist joining in on this one. Full disclosure: I am an IU grad, although Knight came after I graduated. Sure Knight is a complex man; he wants things done his way and believes that if basketball is played his way, wins will inevitably follow. He also has standards that make him difficult to play for...takes a special kid to want to play for Knight. Neil Reed was a jerk, whose dad was a bitter Knight opponent - so fireworks were inevitable. Reed had no friends on that team and his team mates were glad to see him go. Typical of the media, what doesn't get covered is all the good Knight does for his former players and the University. He was a major driver in fund raising for IU's library and he personally funded a chair in IU's history department. At IU, Brand was the bad guy -- look at how he played that into big job as NCAA president. Knight is just one of those characters who is "out of time." Thirty or forty years ago, he would have been revered; but he's just too tough and uncompromising for our PC world.

Thanks to Kristinn and all the FReepers who braved the storm to attend the book signing last night. You guys have been there for me when it counted and I truly appreciate the support (that's for all the lefties who might be lurking)

Good question. Note in the latest Los Alamos scandal, one of the reasons cited for firing the two guys was their willingness to talk to the FBI. They were told there was too much bad blood left over from the Lee debacle and the hard drives. But in the hard drives case, the scientists flat refused to cooperate with a federal law enforcement investigation and somebody clearly crossed a police line and dropped the missing drives behind a copier. The Lab's patron Saint Pete Domenici leaned on the Bureau to give up the case. So maybe these guys do think that they are above the law. And why not? There is little to zero accountability in how the labs do business, spend taxpayer monies, etc.

You are right. There were a lot of people at State, Defense, etc., who just couldn't deal with the implications of a break up of the FSU. "see no evil" right? Over the decade, the Russians got better at security for their warheads, but there is still lots of concern about securing their fissile material. Powell was right in saying the only thing missing from Iraq's program is fissile material and the great fear has been the transfer or procurement by the Iraqis of same. Doesn't appear to have happened, but my confidence in that judgment is about 50/50.

Didn't know anything about it until I read it all in their book, after it was published. We started looking at instability in russia in late 1990. And kept pushing the nuc safey issue throughout 1990s. There were some very bitter battles inside govt between those worried about russian instability and those who "saw no evil." Clinton admin. politization of this issue was just another of the clinton scandals.

Thanks for bringing this up. I actually was one of the prime instigators behind the Russian Fission project. I first persuaded Jay Stewart in the early 1990s to start the project, then he picked me to brief the Energy Secretary, and take the DOE lead on a national intelligence estimate, the first one written on russian nuclear safety. I also took Steward to NATO to brief the SecGen. He simply tagged along. The problem was Stern's presentation was that she was purveying old news. We had already been working on Russian instabilities for probably two years at that point; I had put together the Russian Fission workshop that featured speakers like Jim Scheslinger, etc. Now along comes Stern two years later like she invented the problem. The briefing in question was sophmoric at best. I went back to Los Alamos for an extended period for personal reasons and when I got back to Washington, the Clintonites had buried the program. That part is correct; but to allege that someone who led the charge on nuclear safety in Russia and instabilty helped shoot down the problem is a bit much. So sorry, wrong guy. But that's ok, I heard worse.

thanks, that is an absolute hoot. Which was the bigger lie: I didn't have sex...or nobody told me...? My take on this always was that no one did tell him until March 1998. That was the admin's first response when asked by Cox and then later amended. March '98 was when he signed a PDD setting up a counterintelligence shop at DOE. Probably wondered why a president was bothering with something that could have been handled at the dept. My second question: where did all these republicans go? Barely hear a peep about china or its continuing espionage against US s/t.

Well, it is. Nobody should be given a free pass to carry classified material out of the lab or anywhere else. Or to load it on their laptop, etc. But Lee...

Thanks for your kind words. RE: what went wrong. White House officials made it very clear that they didn't want to hear about espionage or international terrorist attacks on the U.S. or a host of other things. This message came through loud and clear to bureau/agency managers who then censored what went "downtown" to the White House. It can't happen here, became on mantra, another was dismissing anything that didn't fit their "let's pretent" view of the world as a worse case scenario. The latter became a tool of derision throughout the IC, but as the world saw on 9/11, sometimes worse cases do come true.

Let me challenge one statement re: what other coders have done. We uncovered a lot of sloppy handling of classified information on laptops, home PCs etc., during my time as D/In and CI. Nothing even remotely came close to the scope and magnitude of what Lee transferred to unclassifed networks. As Joe Stalin once said, "at some point quantity does take on a quality all its own." Transferring 1,2,5 classified files is criminal, transferring the contents of every input file containing sizes, shapes, geometries, materials of every warhead in the US arsenal is in a whole 'nother league. Thanks to Richardson, but also the FBI for siccing the press on Lee in 1999 after he was fired. I often thought it was deliberate, to ensure that Lee could ultimately claim that he couldn't get a fair trial due to sensational media coverage. So Richardson, et.al., wouldn't have to deal with espionage allegations re: china. Ultimately that's what this was about, even the criminal prosecution of Lee was not about espionage, but simply "mishandling classified info." Likewise Peter Lee, who admitted giving Chinese nuclear secrets, but also some very sensitive ASW stuff but was let off with less than a slap on the wrist and no espionage charges.

The point of the bonus was to reassure the good ol' boys in the Bureau that no matter how much bad PR they get, they will still be taken care of. Also sends a message to Coleen Rowley that the press can't protect her forever.

Ah yes, Messemer. This was during the bail phase of Lee's hearings. Messemer truthfully testified that Lee had been downloading nuclear secrets on a friend's computer outside the security perimeter at LANL. Lee would visit his colleague's office during lunch and after hours to make his illicit tapes. The colleague told the Bureau that Lee had told him that he wanted to download some documents and may have mentioned a resume at one point. When the defense team reviewed the notes from the Bureau's interview of the colleague they could find no reference to a resume. The Bureau does not record these interviews, believe it or not, and relies on hand-written notes and memory. In his book, Lee admits that he was downloading secrets. He says he never told the colleague what he was doing...the colleague didn't have a security clearance after all! Not surprisingly, the defense jumped on Messemer's statement and that helped convince Judge Parker that he had been misled by the government re: the need to hold Lee in solitary. All in all, a shameful episode. But, bottom line, Lee had been downloading secrets outside the security perimeter to an unsecure computer. Re: Gerth. I never talked to Gerth until much later. I did talk to Jim Risen, but limited my "revelations" to the manner in which the administration had (mis)handled the case up to that point. But both Risen and Gerth had many "sources" inside the government, including the CIA Director and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. Thanks for you patience in reading this.

Time and again, thank you

Thank you for your kind words.

Right, yes I wrote this one. Reed and Cliff read it for the radio media monitor.

I am accusing the FBI of failing to conduct a full investigation of an individual who repeatedly lied to the FBI about his contacts and interactions with PRC nuclear scientists. Who failed to disclose that he had assisted the PRC to improve their nuclear warhead simulation codes. By definition, transmitting information related to the defense of the U.S. with the intent that or with reason to believe that information will be used to the injury or the U.S. or the advantage of a foreign nation is espionage. I am accusing the FBI and the Justice Dept. of failing not just in the WH Lee, but also the Peter Lee case to pursue espionage allegations. The clintons never accused WH Lee of being a spy, only of mishandling classified information. Had they accused him of being a spy, they would have had to identify for whom. That would have opened up China and they were too much in the bag to the PRC to do that. A federal prosecutor later determined in an internal review that sufficient probable cause existed to believe that Lee was conducting clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of the PRC and that his wife was aiding, abetting, etc. That's how I differ from the Clintons, etc. Further,although I did not agree or necessarily approve of solitary confinement for Lee, what exactly did Richardson, et. al, "lie about." Lee's tapes were never recovered. The Justice Dept. offered Mrs. Lee limited immunity more than a year later for any evidence that she could provide re: the whereabouts of the tapes. And if you believe the tapes were any less than a portable classified nuclear library, were you aware that Lee's main defense witness, John Richter, recanted his testimony before Judge Parker less than six weeks later in a congressional hearing. Under oath, he told Senators that he hadn't meant to mislead the Judge, but admitted he did and then told the committee that Lee had also downloaded design information on the W88 on those tapes. He did not tell Judge Parker that when he testified on Lee's behalf. Sorry for the long reply. I hope that's clear. Happy to answer any other questions you might have.

With all due respect, that's an insult to Billy Dale. The FBI, etc., was ready to walk away from Lee altogether when they uncovered to their utter astonishment his nuclear files. That was just too big to cover up, but note that he wasn't prosecuted for espionage, simply mishandling classified data. Lee was no scapegoat or any of the other excuses his supporters offered up.

Published and available on Amazon.com etc.